• Question: How often do parents genes carry a desise to their cihldren?

    Asked by Melbelle to Gaia on 5 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Gaia Andreoletti

      Gaia Andreoletti answered on 5 Mar 2016:

      Hi Malbelle,

      This is an excellent question that unfortunately has no single answer.

      Children inherit approximately half of their genes from mom and the other half from dad.
      If a genetic disorder is diagnosed within a family, it might be difficult to predict if any other member of the family will develop the disease because in some cases there are many factors that influence a person’s chances of developing a condition.

      Many genetic disorders have a “multifactorial inheritance,” meaning that they are caused by a combination of inherited bad mutations in multiple genes and by environmental factors (e.g. smoking and unhealthy diet). Examples of such diseases are asthma and diabetes.

      However, there are cases in which a person has a disease with an “autosomal dominant” inheritance, meaning that she/he has a 50% chance of passing the badly mutated gene to each of his/her children.

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